Crest Hill teen dies in crash

Varsity athlete killed 3 days before start of his senior year

The death of a well-liked student in a one-vehicle accident will mean a difficult start Friday to the year at Lockport Township High School, officials said.

David Nelson Jr., 17, of Crest Hill died Tuesday after driving a stolen Chevrolet pickup truck into a tree in Channahon, about 12 miles southwest of Joliet, police said Wednesday.

The impact was so severe that the oak tree penetrated the vehicle by almost 3 feet after Nelson hit it dead on. When authorities were alerted about 6 a.m., four hours after the crash likely occurred, Nelson was breathing and had a pulse.

He was cut from the vehicle and taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he was pronounced dead about 9:20 a.m. Tuesday.

Nelson of the 1900 block of North Hickory Street played varsity volleyball at Lockport and was about to start his senior year.

Peter Colarelli, a spokesman for the school, said Nelson had many friends.

"It will be hard for students to come to grips with his death because he was very friendly and outgoing," Colarelli said. "The boy made a bad decision, and it cost him his life. He's not that type of person overall."

He said grief counselors would be available to students when they attend their first day Friday.

Police said residents near the accident scene awoke to a loud crashing sound around 2 a.m. One said it sounded like someone was kicking in the front door. Another thought a tree was falling on the house. Neither could see the crash site on Meadow Lark Drive just east of Cardinal Drive from their front windows.

Channahon Police Detective Jeff Wold said the case is under investigation. Alcohol may have played a role in the crash, he said, but added that authorities won't know until toxicology tests are completed. There was no alcohol in the truck, he said.

The owner of the truck told investigators he parked it in his driveway Monday night, Wold said. Police believe it was stolen between 1:30 and 2 a.m.

Wold said Nelson was alone at the time of the wreck, but police are seeking anyone who might have been with him earlier that night. He noted that many teens don't think this could happen to them.

Wold said Nelson did not have a criminal record and that his friends stressed the whole incident was uncharacteristic.

"It almost seems like a crime of opportunity," he said.

Wold said he wants to be able to give Nelson's family some answers as to what happened in the last hours of their son's life. He did not have any identification and medical workers did not know who he was, Wold said. Hospital staff said Nelson was carrying a friend's identification, so authorities called her to help identify him.

Nelson's parents could not be reached for comment.

Colarelli said Nelson had played varsity volleyball since his sophomore year. While Colarelli said he did not know Nelson well, he remembers the teen had talked about becoming a doctor.

Colarelli said he hoped the incident would spark some awareness about safety behind the wheel. The school has a program meant to deter teens from driving under the influence, he said, acknowledging that investigators don't know that Nelson had been drinking the morning he died.

The program, called "Road to Reality," calls for the school's drama club to act out a night of partying and drinking. In the short play, the students fight over who is going to drive and eventually get into a wreck. They play dead as they are extricated from a crumbled vehicle parked on school grounds.

Despite the program and other students' deaths, he fears teens aren't getting the message.

"They still don't learn," he said. "I'm praying they do this time."

----------

jnapolitano@tribune.com

TEENS AT THE WHEEL

The Tribune is putting a spotlight on the dangers of teen driving. For the series so far, visit: chicagotribune.com/teendrivers